Whilst it is quite possible to lead a religious
life as a lay person complete devotion to religion involves
giving up completely the concerns of ordinary life. In most
religions we find groups of people, usually fairly small in
numbers, who leave home and family and occupation to live
dedicated lives as monks or nuns. We are told that Mahavira
organized the Jain community into four sections, monks or nuns,
who can follow his teachings to the fullest extent, as well as
lay men and lay women. Monks and nuns make up, of course, only a
small part of the Jain community but they are a very important
part. * For a religion which has no priests, the monks and nuns
serve as religious teachers. Most of the great Jain scholars of
the past were monks and even today, when there are also
considerable scholars amongst the ranks of the Jain laity, many
of the important works on Jain religion are written by monks.
Monks and nuns set an example of the religious life for lay
people: their duty is their own souls' spiritual welfare, and
that of others as well. They are greeted and treated with great
respect and it is an act of merit for the householder to feed
them and otherwise provide for their needs. They possess no
property beyond the bare essentials, a couple of pieces of cloth
for clothing (monks of the Digambara division of Jainism do not
even have these and go completely naked), a bowl, walking stick,
a soft brush to remove insects gently, and one or two other
objects, together with books and writing materials. Their daily
needs are supplied by the faithful.

Although it is permitted that a boy who shows
exceptional promise for the religious life may become a monk as
early as the age of eight, most people will be adults, or at
least in their teens, when they do so. Indeed it is quite common
for middle-aged people to enter the mendicant life. The
prospective mendicant must be free from physical infirmities and
moral shortcomings and will seek the permission of parents or
guardian. The candidate will seek out a guide and teacher (guru)
in the order who will make sure that this person is suitable in
every way and who will remain his mentor throughout life. The
diksa or initiation ritual will be the occasion for great
ceremony, when the candidate renounces his worldly possessions
and receives the essential items for his new life. His hair is
plucked out in imitation of the act of Mahavira when he renounced
worldly things. Now the initiate receives a new name to show that
he has completely left his home and family and all his earlier
life. Family life, business, politics, are no concern of the Jain
monk or nun. For the first year or two the novice will receive
training in the rules and practices of monastic life before being
confirmed in his or her vocation.

The sadhu or sadhvi is bound to keep the five
great moral precepts in their fullest rigor. Non-violence
involves for the mendicant the most meticulous care to avoid harm
to even minute creatures which have only one sense, the sense of
touch. (It is recognized that a layman cannot always avoid harm
to these.) This can involve softly sweeping the ground if
necessary to clear living creatures, carefully removing insects,
and sometimes using a cloth over the mouth to avoid harm to the
most subtle beings of the air. The vows of truthfulness and
non-stealing are interpreted in the strictest manner: the
mendicant may not take even the most trivial object without its
owner's permission. Sexual restraint is total,
non-acquisitiveness means the virtually complete abandonment of
material possessions.

The person who has adopted the mendicant life
should cultivate ten qualities. First comes forgiveness of those
who have done harm and avoidance of anger. Then there are modesty
(not least the avoidance of pride in one's spiritual
achievements), avoidance of deceit or concealing one's faults,
contentment and the avoidance of greed, teaching others the high
ideals of the scriptures, watchfulness to avoid harm to living
beings, undertaking austerities without hope of material reward,
avoidance of tasty food and comfortable lodging, complete
renunciation of the desire for possessions, and lastly careful
restriction on association with members of the opposite sex.
Self-control, and vigilance in every daily action to avoid harm,
are the two chief virtues.

The daily life of the sadhu or sadhvi is
ordered and regulated. The monk rises from his simple bed hours
before dawn. He says the Panca Namaskara, the fivefold formula of
obeisance to the superior beings. He greets his teacher
respectfully. A period of meditation follows, after which he
recites the rituals of penance or confession (Pratikramana) for
any violence or misdeeds he may have committed. He checks his
clothing carefully and removes any small creatures which might
get harmed (and he will do this at least twice a day). By this
time the sun will have risen and he can spend a couple of hours
in studying the scriptures (for a monk does not use artificial
light). The teachers will give sermons for both monks and laity.
Then he will go to the temple to worship the Tirthankara.
Detailed rules regulate the way in which monks and nuns may seek
their food: they should go each day to different houses and will
accept only food which is willingly given and not specially
prepared for them and, of course, which is acceptable in terms of
the Jain monastic vows. On returning from the trip to seek food
the monk will present the food before his teacher and will share
it with other monks who, from sickness or other cause, cannot
themselves seek food, before he takes any food himself The
afternoon and evening are devoted to further study and meditation
as well as the small tasks like writing letters which even a
mendicant will have to do. There will be a second trip to seek
food in the late afternoon so that the meal may be eaten before
nightfall. The day ends with a further visit to the temple, a
further ritual of contrition, and the monk goes to bed after
vowing forgiveness to those who have harmed him and seeking
forgiveness from all. The life of a sadhu or sadhvi (nuns follow
the same routine) is hard but they learn to overcome hardships
and face them resolutely and with detachment.

The spiritual life of the Jain has been likened
to a ladder. There are fourteen 'rungs' or stages (gunasthana) on
the ladder. These have been described in great detail in the
scriptures. To start with the individual has not even begun the
ascent and has totally wrong attitudes. If the individual can get
rid of delusions then the soul succeeds in going straight to the
fourth rung of the ladder but the position is still precarious
and it is possible to slip back onto two different levels of
wavering states and even right back to the beginning. But if the
individual can control passions desires, hatred to a reasonable
extent (not retaining them beyond the annual self-examination in
the Paryusana season of the Jain year) the ascent is begun. He or
she will now feel a tranquillity of spirit, will have the ability
to discriminate between right and wrong, will want to avoid
purely material pleasures, will be kindhearted to others and will
have a clear vision of truth. Such attitudes will naturally lead
on to undertaking to obey the five great moral precepts, and this
will be the next rung on the ladder. We saw in the previous
chapter how the lay person reduces his or her attachment to the
things of the world and develops attachment to religion. That
process happens at this stage or rung on the spiritual

The sixth rung on the ladder marks a great
decision for now the individual has progressed so far that he or
she is intent on renouncing the world and adopting the life of a
monk or nun. Henceforth life is totally directed towards
spiritual progress. The great vows are followed in their entirety
and the individual reaches the stage of eliminating all the
stronger passions. Daily self-examination and sorrow for offenses
committed knowingly or unknowingly is now obligatory and the
individual who succeeds in the discipline of the sixth stage
rises further to the next rung. Passions are virtually subdued
but alertness is still needed to prevent slipping back. The
aspirant climbs three more rungs, at each stage gaining more
complete control over himself. The eleventh rung is unsafe: even
now, nearing the top of the ladder the individual soul can drop
back, desires and hatred can arise again and the slow climb must
be restarted. Some individuals, very few at any time, reach the
twelfth stage. Delusions and desires have been eliminated and the
way is clear to the thirteenth rung when the soul achieves
complete enlightenment, total knowledge. The fourteenth rung
detains only momentarily the enlightened soul which passes
quickly over it to achieve moksa or total liberation.

This is a long process. Every individual soul
passes through countless lives. Sometimes progress is made,
sometimes not. The mendicant who sets himself or herself
resolutely towards spiritual development still has a long way to
go. Even when self-control is almost achieved and delusive views
of the nature of life and the universe have disappeared for the
few who reach the stage described as the tenth rung on the
ladder, the completion of what can be described as the
constructive stages of the mystical life, even then the old
suppressed passions can re-emerge and the final goal recedes as
the soul drops back into old habits, old feelings, old delusions.

Throughout the development of the spiritual
life the individual will have before his or her eyes the example
of the Tirthankara. According to Jain tradition, in each of the
great cycles of time, lasting countless thousands of years, some
people gain total enlightenment. Of these, twenty-four in each
half-cycle are known as Tirthankara. They are the ones who,
having achieved total knowledge themselves, pass on knowledge in
teaching the people, before they leave the world and attain the
ultimate state of moksa. Mahavira was, of course, the
twenty-fourth Tirthankara in the current half- cycle of time. At
all stages of the religious life the Tirthankara are seen as a
help to the aspiring soul, they are the nearest thing Jainism has
to a god, in fact they are sometimes even called 'god'. In a Jain
temple the image of the Tirthankara is worshipped and treated
with great devotion and respect. But the individual must
understand that the Tirthankara is to be taken as a supreme
example of spiritual struggle and success, not as the donor of
favors or the author of fortune or misfortune. The individual
must work out salvation for himself but it is a great help and
very meritorious to meditate on the example of the Tirthankara
(whether in the presence of an image or without that material
figure before the eyes), to take the Tirthankara as an ideal and
to resolve to follow the path the Tirthankara has shown.